The Hunt for Artic Char

As we approached the loch yesterday morning with the warm glow of the first of the day’s light silhouetting the hills there was a distinct chill in the air, confirmation that summer is now at an end and the cold short days of winter are just around the corner.

By the end of the day the yellows, ochres, oranges and browns of the changing landscape, illuminated in the now setting sun and accompanied by the virile bellowing of the Red Deer rut ringing in the hills set a quintessential scene of an early autumn evening.

With the arrival of autumn, nears the end of the Trout season and the task for the day was to have one last shot at the Char. A task that ultimately we failed to complete as the Char refused to play by the script. However all was not lost as the usual Char session gate crashers made their customary appearance and by the end of the day we did manage to locate some lovely little wild Brown Trout, tinged with silver due to the still, very coloured water.

The nuisance Eels also offered their pestering input to the day and any bait cast at range was promptly found and engulfed by these apparently critically endangered fish. Due to this and possibly contributing to the lack of Char, we were forced to fish at close range, albeit still in a fair depth of water.

Maggots, fished with a feeder cast five to ten meters from the shore and just off a steep drop off of around 20 - 30 feet produced plenty of Trout later in the day and it was this that almost compensated for the frustrations of not being able to reach the Char. This and the stunning surroundings that often we take for granted.